NIKITA Recap: “Rogue” (Episode 14)

Percy is on a mission to regain control of Division and that seems to start with the harsh murder, albeit conducted by Roan, of a Newark, New Jersey police detective, who, as it turns out, has a connection to Nikita’s past. The recently murdered cop was the partner of the cop killed by Nikita, the crime that put her in prison and onto the radar of Division. But, what is the purpose of this needless shooting?

Nikita

Meanwhile, Alex ditches two teams of Division agents who have been tasked to follow her while she is outside the walls of Division in order to meet up with Michael and Nikita at Birkhoff’s lair. She reports in that Amanda has complete control of Division because Oversight is gone and there are no boundaries; but there are no missions even being planned except for one: saving Alex’s mother. Michael tells Alex that she should listen to what Amanda has to say about the mission and then turn her down; but Nikita tells her to consent to the mission.

The news coverage of the murder of the New Jersey detective makes its way to the general public; and with Birkhoff in Seattle trying to set up yet another new base of operations for the team, he remotely contacts Michael and Nikita because the news report activates an alert that leads back to Nikita (i.e. the murdered cop’s partner was shot to death by Nikita 10 years earlier) and the anonymous voice that reported the murder to 911 is easily identified as belonging to Percy.

Nikita on Floor

This leads to Percy making a call to Senator Pierce as a round-about-way to contact Nikita; which leads to Percy making a threat to one of the people in Nikita’s life that she cares about – besides the people she loves who carry guns, that is. That one person is Carla Bennett (guest star Erica Gimpel), the woman who, 10 years ago, helped Nikita get clean (albeit briefly). This is when Nikita experiences yet another flashback to 10 years ago while staying with Carla when she was clean and landed a job. Carla called Nikita her wildflower, explaining that a wildflower grows in the desert, saving its strength, waiting for the rain to come and then reaching for the sun so it can bloom.

Carla and Nikita

That statement becomes an important message to Carla embedded within a televised speech made by Senator Pierce, regarding the massacre at the Gates House for which she was the only survivor. It is the hope of Nikita that Carla sees the speech and will reach out to the Senator so that she and Michael can save Carla from Percy’s threat. It is also revealed that Carla seemingly abandoned Nikita when she needed her most (after Nikita shot and killed the cop); but it was the other way around; because of what Nikita did, it put Carla back in the spotlight as there was a warrant for her arrest in another state, causing Carla to go underground.

The ruse worked because Carla contacts the Senator’s office, allowing Nikita to talk to her; but, as expected, Roan is listening in to the conversation from a nearby building, reporting back to Percy that Nikita and Michael had somehow snuck into the Senator’s office undetected and were, indeed, in contact with Carla. And more, importantly, Percy, Roan and Miller are able to find out Carla’s location, which is in the slums of Baltimore where she is living out of an old abandoned car. During Nikita’s meeting with Carla, Michael is standing guard when Alex calls Nikita to advise her of a kill order for Carla made by Amanda (that ranks Carla above Nikita and even Percy), which makes Nikita suspicious that Carla is somehow involved with Division. Not surprisingly, Carla does know about Division, even though that wasn’t what it was called when she knew about it. But then Percy and his minions arrive, starting a huge gunfight that (for once) results in no fatalities, but spurs Carla to march right through the firefight straight to Percy’s car. Once she’s inside the car, she demands that Percy calls off his guns, leaving Michael and Nikita unharmed.

Carla and the Cop

Once back at the industrial building Percy is using as their hide-out, Carla demands to know what Percy is up to and he claims he wants to apologize for Amanda sending an agent to kill her 12 years earlier. She counters that they are both paying the price for the things they have done (and one has to wonder just what Carla did to cause her to say that). Meanwhile, Nikita wants answers as to how Carla could be involved with Division and, of course, to track her down; and, the only way to do that is to track down Percy. So, Nikita enlists Alex to use Division’s satellite system to find him and that brings Amanda into the fold with her finding out his and Carla’s location.

In true Amanda style, she sends out a team of agents to take out Carla, but they are intercepted by Michael and Nikita as well as Percy’s minions, Roan and Miller. It’s yet another gunfight with most of the agents being taken down, Carla getting hurt and Percy and his men getting away.

The other storyline featured Alex working with Amanda in order to take down Semak by revealing to the world that Alexandra Udinov (Alex’s real identity) is very much alive and ready to take over Zetrov, the company that her father built and the one for which Semak stole out from under them all. This will also enable Alex to get her mother back as well.

The final reveal was that Carla never worked for Division – explaining why Michael never heard of her – she actually created it (WTF!)

“Rogue” is the 14th episode of the second season of Nikita with the next new episode airing on Friday, February 17 at 9 PM on The CW.

How did you feel about this episode? Did it help to see the flashbacks of what caused Nikita to go to prison and the influence Carla tried to be for her at that time? Do you wonder just what caused Amanda to hate Carla so much? Do you wonder how the mission to get Alex back in the public eye and back in charge of Zetrov will turn out? How shocked were you by the reveal that Carla created Division and what kind of ramifications that will have on everyone? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.